


The Star Sapphire School of Trial and Error

by Cloudandus



Category: Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Green Lantern Corps (Comics), Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (Comics)
Genre: GuyKyle Week 2020, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Star Sapphire Corps - Freeform, Star Sapphire Kyle Rayner, UPDATE: NOW HAS BOOB WINDOW FANART, wave-doodles is doing god's work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24176944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cloudandus/pseuds/Cloudandus
Summary: Things that come with becoming a Star Sapphire- Magical ring that turns thoughts into hard-light constructs- Unexplained four month imprisonment in a giant pink space rock- Carol Ferris threatening your life- Boob window tan linesThings it does not include:- A Power Battery- An Instruction Manual- Basic Training- Anything close to the guidance, advice, instructions, training and supervision Kyle so desperately needs
Relationships: Guy Gardner/Kyle Rayner
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	The Star Sapphire School of Trial and Error

**Author's Note:**

> For GuyKyle Week Day 4 - Star Sapphire/Injury
> 
> I originally planned to include an explicit sex scene in this story, but I decided I liked the flow better without it. Rest assured, I will be posting that scene as a stand alone fic sometime soon.
> 
> 07-03-2020: FANART!!!!!!!!!!!  
> [An actual scene from the fic!](https://wave-doodles.tumblr.com/post/622595967119736832/you-guys-get-training-and-power-batteries-and)  
> [And Kyle's outfit, which is canon now](https://wave-doodles.tumblr.com/post/621500963732291584/star-sapphirekyle-rayner-with-boob-window-and)  
> like, reblog and subscribe for guykyle rights

The bar was an absolute dive, and what passed for beer there tasted like fermented piss, but as of thirty seconds ago it no longer contained Hal Jordan’s smirking face so it was Guy Gardner’s new favorite place in the galaxy.

He didn’t watch Hal disappear up the stairs with whatever alien he’d found to warm his bed. He’d seen enough of him these last two weeks, running one long, overly convoluted courier mission to the ass end of the galaxy and back.

They hadn’t even gotten to fight anyone! Well, any enemies. They fought each other plenty. The second their mission was done they decided unanimously to head straight to the nearest bar and sit as far away from each other as physically possible. It was the first time they’d agreed on anything since the mission started.

Hal had already found the nearest willing body with demonstrable life signs and was obviously well on his way fucking it in order to distract himself from ever critically thinking about his own shortcomings as a human being and a Green Lantern for once in his entire life. Guy was still debating between getting shitfaced and starting a bar fight. He had learnt from experience that he had to choose one or the other if he didn’t want to wake up pantsless and hungover in alien jail. 

And sure, Guy didn’t have the best coping mechanisms either, but at least he was self aware. And much less likely to get Space Chlamydia.

He was leaning towards bar fight. The beer here tasted like shit, and he was pretty sure that was an alien bug drowning in his glass.

Just as he was wondering if he should fish the bug out and finish his glass or dump it on somebody’s head, a soft voice called out to him. 

“Hey…” They had to be talking to him. He’d told his ring to stop translating anything not addressed to him so he wouldn’t have to listen to any of the blathering bargoers surrounding him.

Guy turned. Standing at his elbow was a human Star Sapphire he had never seen before. A guy too, which was rare. He was leaning against the dirty bartop, dark hair shading his glowing pink eyes as he gave Guy a blatantly seductive look.

“Buy me a drink?” 

Guy could respect that level of audacity.

“Sure.” Guy gestured at the display of various alien alcohols behind the bar. “Pick your poison.”

The bug in Guy’s beer finally made it’s escape, plopping down on the bar with an audible wet splat. He and the Star Sapphire watched its many limbs flail as it tried to right itself.

“Just water is fine.” The Star Sapphire said.

Guy snorted. “Probably wise.” He raised his hand to summon the bartender.

“So, what’s your name, handsome?” The Star Sapphire asked, taking a seat on the empty stool next to Guy.

“Guy Gardner. Who are you?”

“I’m Kyle.” The Star Sapphire -- Kyle -- said. “Can I call you Guy?”

“Sure.” Guy grunted, before taking a sip of his own drink. He had already paid for it, so he might as well drink it.

“So, what brings you to this corner of the galaxy, Guy?” Kyle asked, accepting his glass of water and looking relieved to find it clear and bug free.

“Mission.” Guy said, trying to communicate through his tone that he’d sooner eat the bug still shaking beer off its wings than talk about it.

“Cool.” Kyle said, clearly getting the message.

“What about you?” Guy asked. “How’d you end up in this shithole?”

Honestly, he was curious. The chances that Kyle had coincidentally stumbled on the only bar on the planet with a Green Lantern in it weren’t even worth contemplating. Clearly he wanted something from Guy.

“I was exploring,” Kyle explained with a genuine smile. “Then I ran low on charge. I heard there was a Green Lantern here, and thought maybe you’d be willing to…” Kyle paused, and looked at Guy very deliberately. _“Give me a hand.”_

Guy watched him blandly, not giving an inch. “Don’t think my Power Battery will do you much good.”

“I was thinking of something…” Here Kyle paused, obviously searching for an innuendo before settling for: “Different.”

“Uh huh.” Guy watched him over the rim of his beer glass, wondering where Kyle was going to take this next.

“I am offering to suck your dick in order to charge my ring.” Kyle said bluntly, giving up on subtlety. 

Guy didn’t choke on the last of his beer, but it was nearer than he was willing to admit. Kyle looked very disappointed.

“Are you offering the blowjob as payment?” Guy asked, aiming for infuriatingly unbothered but hitting skeptical instead. “Or will sucking my dick actually recharge your ring?”

He had heard rumors, of course. A primarily female Corps powered by love? Every moron in the galaxy had their own implausible, porno-bait theories. Guy had dismissed that one out of hand because of the enormous logical and ethical implications. But if Kyle was serious...

“Sucking your dick will recharge my ring.” Kyle confirmed.

“Okay, you know what?” Guy said, putting down his empty glass on the bartop and startling the now mostly recovered alien bug into flying away. “Let’s take a walk.”

* * *

“Look,” Kyle started. “If you’re turning me down…”

Guy held up one gloved hand. “I’m not.” He said. “Not yet. I’ve got some questions I want answered first, before I decide.”

That was promising. He wasn’t lying when he’d called the man handsome. One glass of water certainly hadn’t been enough to quench Kyle’s thirst, but Guy Gardner might be. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.

“Okay.” Kyle agreed, before adding: “I’m clean, just so you know. The ring makes sure of it.”

“That’s not--” Guy started. “Whatever. Would sucking my dick seriously charge your ring?”

“Yeah.” Had he thought Kyle was speaking metaphorically? _‘Oh, baby, charge my ring?’_ Not a terrible pick up line, but Kyle could definitely do better.

“Are you telling me that Star Sapphires have to have sex to charge their rings?” Guy asked, sounding more concerned than incredulous. “Every time they run low, they have to have sex?”

“Oh god, no!” Kyle exclaimed. Yikes, was that what Guy was worried about?

“Sex is just one way to recharge.” Kyle explained. “As far as I can tell I’m, like, absorbing the love energy from my surroundings. If I was home I could call my Ma or hang out with my best friend and recharge that way. Or I could creep on some couple while they’re on a date. But that would be weird.”

“Anyway, sex is an easy way to charge that also gets me laid. I heard on the grapevine that there were some Green Lanterns on this planet, so I stopped by to meet them and maybe get some charge out of the deal.” Kyle paused. “As long as they weren’t Hal Jordan.”

“You know Hal?” Guy asked, squinting suspiciously.

“No, but I’ve met Carol Ferris and I want to live.” Kyle answered.

“Fair. Any idea why you don’t just have Batteries like Green Lanterns?”

Kyle shrugs. “I have no idea. Hell, you probably know more about Star Sapphires than I do.”

“Hm.” Guy said, looking contemplative. “Ring, why don’t Star Sapphires use Power Batteries?”

“The Green Lantern Central Power Battery was created in the year--” A tinny, mechanical voice starts, unmistakably coming from Guy’s Green Lantern ring. 

“Holy shit, it talks!” Kyle yelped. Then paused. “Wait, how come _your_ ring can talk!?”

“Yours can’t?” Guy asked, before telling the ring to shut up under his breath.

“I don’t know!” He held out his own hand, inspecting the Star Sapphire ring on his finger.

It was as silent as it had always been for the last few months he’d had it. Feeling like someone was playing a prank on him, Kyle cautiously addressed the supposedly inanimate object. “Ring, can you talk?” 

“Yes, Star Sapphire.” Said a pleasant woman’s voice from _inside Kyle’s ring what the hell_.

“¡Hijo de puta! You could talk this whole fucking time? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Kyle turned to Guy, who was watching his breakdown with amusement. “How did you find out your ring could talk?”

“Basic training.” Guy responded simply.

“Mierda de toros.” Kyle whispered with feeling. “You guys get training? And Power Batteries? And uniforms without boob windows?”

Guy started muffling his snickers in his fist.

“I’m _defecting_.” Kyle swore.

“They didn’t train you?” Guy asked incredulously, still laughing. 

“No!” Kyle yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. “The ring came to me, told me I had the capacity for love or whatever, and then took me to the freaking Crystal Peak level of Hollow Knight. I was shoved into a giant pink rock and went on some sort of peyote self discovery trip, and when I came out some blue alien ladies in Wonder Woman cosplay told me I worked for them now and sent me home and _never contacted me again_. And when I get home it turns out I had been gone for _four months_. My mother thought I had been murdered, or human trafficked by the cartels, and I had to tell her, ‘Sorry Ma, I was actually kidnapped by aliens, but it’s cool cause I have a job now.’”

“What the fuck was even the point of locking me in a rock for _four months?”_ Kyle complained, his rant winding down into a solid whine. “I would have taken the job anyway. I can freaking fly now! And breathe in space. And talk to aliens.” 

“Wait,” Guy said, having thankfully recovered from his laughter. “So when did you meet Carol?” 

“She hunted me down and told me that Hal Jordan was _hers_ and she’d kill me if I got in her way.” Kyle explained.

“Yikes.” Guy said.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Kyle agreed. “I didn’t even know who that was. My friend Alex had to use all of her journalist mojo to figure out that she meant the Coast City Green Lantern.”

Kyle paused. “Huh. If I had known the ring talked I could have asked the ring who Hal Jordan was. Hey ring, why don’t Star Sapphires have Power Batteries?”

“Star Sapphires, like all other Emotional Light Energy Spectrum wielders, absorb their characteristic Emotional Light Energy directly from their surroundings instead of from a secondary source like a Power Battery.”

Kyle gave the ring an unimpressed look. “Okay, let’s try to be more specific. Ring, why do Green Lanterns use Power Batteries?”

“The Guardians of the Universe established the Green Lantern Power Battery system in response to high rookie casualties from Emotional Light Energy Hyperabsorption Syndrome. By preventing Green Lanterns from absorbing Green Light Energy directly from their surroundings and instead chaining them to personal Power Batteries, which are connected to the Green Lantern Central Power Battery on the Green Lantern Homeplanet of Oa--”

“Okay, ring.” Kyle interrupted. It looked like he was going to have to fight his ring’s AI to get the information he was looking for. “What’s Emotional Light Energy Hyperabsorption Syndrome?”

“Emotional Light Energy Hyperabsorption Syndrome is the process by which the amount of Emotional Light Energy absorbed exceeds the individual’s ability to contain it, and the individual is vaporized on an atomic level.”

It took Kyle a second to process, but when he did he immediately yelled “Ring, am I going to fucking _explode!?_ ”, almost drowning out Guy’s simultaneous “What the _fuck!?_ ”

“No, Star Sapphire. As a side effect of Violet Light Energy Hyperexposure Therapy, Star Sapphires are granted immunity to Violet Light Hyperabsorption Syndrome.”

“Okay.” Kyle said. “So I’m not going to explode. Wait, what’s Hyperexposure Therapy?”

“Violet Light Energy Hyperexposure Therapy is the process by which Star Sapphires are made immune to Violet Light Energy Psychotropy. Star Sapphires are imprisoned in Violet Light Energy Crystals for a period of anywhere from--”

“Shoving me in that fucking rock!” Kyle realized. Guy was standing at his shoulder; this information seemed to be as new to him as it was to Kyle. “Ring, what’s Violet Light Psychotropy?”

“Violet Light Energy Psychotropy is condition by which exposure to Violet Light Energy produces unpredictable psychological symptoms, including but not limited to: sudden homicidal rages, dramatic mood swings, decay in logical thought processes, inexplicable--”

“Ring.” Kyle said suddenly. “Ring, did Carol get the rock therapy?”

“No, Star Sapphire. Star Sapphire Carol Ferris predates the reestablishment of the Star Sapphire Corps, and so was not put through standard introduction protocol, including Violet Light Energy Hyperexposure Therapy. Because of the length of time she spent as a Star Sapphire and the natural decrease in Violet Light Energy Psychotropy symptoms over time, Violet Light Energy Hyperexposure Therapy was considered unnecessary.”

Kyle put his head in his hands and allowed himself a moment to contemplate his fucked up life. Then he took a deep breath, turned to Guy, and said “Okay, now I _really_ need to get back to Earth. Are you willing to fuck me or not?” 

“If you need to get to Earth, I can just take you.” Guy said, crossing his arms and frowning. “You don’t have to have sex with me.”

“Okay, but I want to anyway.” Kyle responded, crossing his own arms. “Are you down or not?”

“Sure, as long as we go somewhere besides that bar. I don’t wanna hafta listen to Jordie fuck in the other room.”

* * *

“Please don’t murder me.”

Carol’s heard a lot of supervillain opening lines, both as a civilian being threatened by enemies of Green Lantern and as Star Sapphire, being the enemy and doing the threatening. She’s never heard one like this, but this guy broke into her office. He probably wasn’t there to sell her Girl Scout Cookies.

He seemed familiar, but Carol wasn’t sure where she’d seen his skinny build and messy black hair before. With her luck, it was probably on a breaking news report about a supervillain jailbreak. Oh god, did she team up with him as Star Sapphire?

She doesn’t remember a lot of the things she’s done as Star Sapphire. Usually it came to her in dreams, or she’d be going about her day and suddenly remember -- Oh yeah, two weeks ago she threw a 42 million dollar airplane at Hal while screaming about his commitment issues. Then she told the insurance agent with a straight face that it was a _random_ supervillain attack that damaged the airplane, certainly not a direct, planned attack on Ferris Air itself, so they expected complete compensation for all losses incurred.

The intruder seemed to be waiting for her to say something. A point against him being a supervillain, since she hadn’t met a single one who didn’t feel personally entitled to fill every pause between words with their entire life story. 

Carol toed off her heels in case she had to make a run for it and walked up to her desk. The intruder skittered away as if he thought she were radioactive. Carol checked her desk chair for tampering, then took a seat. She’d been on her feet for two and a half hours longer than planned, thanks to problems with the delivery of new parts that apparently could only be resolved under her direct supervision.

And to think she had thought she might get to go home early today. Typical.

“Who are you?” She finally asked, when the intruder continued to stand in uncomfortable, fidgeting silence.

“Oh! I’m Kyle.” He chuckled in a way that sounds more like a pained wheeze. “I guess you don’t remember me.”

He took his hands out of his pockets, gesturing. On the ring finger of his right hand, he was wearing a Star Sapphire ring. Carol jerked in her seat; the sudden movement startled Kyle and he jumped back, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Please I’m sorry I just want to talk!” Kyle squeaked. He was another Star Sapphire, also from Earth, Carol remembered. She had--

Oh. Star Sapphire had hunted him down and told him she’d feed him his own intestines if he ever even had a thought about Hal Jordan, let alone talked to him. No wonder he was so nervous, he was scared shitless of her.

“About what?” Carol asked. Why would he come to Ferris Air after the first impression Star Sapphire had made?

“Okay, so I’m a Star Sapphire, and when I became a Star Sapphire the ring took me to this alien planet called Zamaron and locked me in a giant pink crystal for four months. I didn’t know why until yesterday when the ring told me that--”

“The _ring_ told you?” Carol interrupted.

“Yeah, apparently the ring talks.” Kyle said.

“It talks.” Carol repeated.

“I was as surprised as you are.” Kyle admitted. “I don’t know how we were supposed to _figure out_ that the rings talk, since the Zamarons certainly didn’t tell anyone. I had to be told by a Green Lantern.”

“Which Green Lantern?” Carol asked immediately.

“It wasn’t Hal Jordan.”

“Was it -- Wait. How do you know that name?”

Kyle looked embarrassed. “When you came to give me the, uh, shovel talk, you used his real name.” 

Carol puts her head in her hands. Great job, Star Sapphire.

“Yeah, I was pretty confused at first, but that mask doesn’t do much to hide his identity so I figured it out.”

“It really doesn’t.” Carol snorted. “Anyway, was it John Stewart?”

“From the Daily Show?”

“From Detroit. The Green Lantern.”

“Oh. Duh. That makes way more sense.” Kyle said. “No, it was Guy Gardner, the red head. Is John Stewart, uh, yours, also?”

He looked scared by the thought.

“No. He’s Fatality’s.”

Now he looked straight up horrified. “...Their name is _Fatality_.”

“Fatality is a code name.” Carol explained. “I don’t know her real name, but she blames John Stewart for the destruction of her planet.”

“Um.” Kyle started.

Carol took pity on him. “From what I heard, he was supposed to save her planet, but he got overconfident and failed.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Kyle said, then immediately started backtracking. “I mean, obviously it’s not _good_ , but I’m glad he’s not actually a genocidal maniac. Anyway, speaking of maniacs…” 

Kyle gestured vaguely towards her. She’d be offended, but she did threaten to kill him as Star Sapphire.

“Turns out, the point of sticking you in the rock is that it keeps the ring from driving you bug fucking nuts and turning you into a supervillain.”

Carol stared. “Are you saying that’s why Star Sapphire is the way she is? Because I didn’t spend four months locked in a crystal?”

“Yeah. Apparently the craziness, uh, subsides over time. You may have noticed that.”

Carol had, in fact, noticed that each Star Sapphire episode was easier to remember than the last, and that her actions as Star Sapphire seemed to be making increasingly more sense. She had been worried that she was becoming more like Star Sapphire, not that Star Sapphire was becoming more like her.

“So the Zamarons--” Kyle continued, pacing through her office as he talked. “That’s the name of the blue alien ladies that run the Star Sapphires. Not that they told me that or anything, they just told me to ‘You are now a Star Sapphire. Spread love throughout the Galaxy’ and sent me on my way. I had to learn their names from the ring. Anyway, they decided you had been a Star Sapphire long enough that you were _probably_ fine. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they were wrong, judging from all the murder threats and the fact that you refer to yourself-as-a-Star-Sapphire in the third person.”

“So what you’re saying is that if I go to space and trap myself in a magical crystal for four months, I won’t turn into a supervillainess and try to murder my ex-boyfriend every time I put on the Star Sapphire ring.” Carol confirmed.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!” Kyle agreed, giving her a double thumbs up. Then he paused. “Wait, if you knew it was going to make you crazy why did you keep putting the ring on?”

“I didn’t.” Carol said sharply. “It would come out of nowhere and fly onto my finger and I wouldn’t come back to myself until after Hal had taken the ring from me and destroyed it.”

“Wow.” Kyle said. “That’s messed up. Might I recommend magical space rock therapy?”

“I’ll do it.” Carol declared. “But I can’t do it right now. Four months is too long to take off without any notice.”

“It probably won’t take that long for you. It depends on the person, and their exposure to Violet Light energy.”

“Well, take a seat and let’s figure out how long it’s going to take.” Carol ordered, opening up her schedule on her phone.

“Actually, can I stand?” Kyle requested sheepishly. “I was hiding under your desk waiting for you to come in for like three hours, and I’m cramping like crazy.”

* * *

Kyle saw Guy as soon as he opened the door. He looked pretty good all cleaned up in a button down shirt and slacks. Kyle had to remind himself that his collared shirt and ripped black jeans got Alex _and_ his Ma’s approval.

Guy didn’t look up when Kyle sat down on the bench next to him, but only because he had been following Kyle with his eyes since he came through the door. Guy looked at him like _he_ was the full course meal, and it made heat burn in the pit of Kyle’s stomach.

Up close, Kyle could see that Guy’s eyes were blue without the Green Light Energy shining through his irises. Guy put an arm around his shoulders. He was warm, and smelled like cologne.

“So how did Carol’s crystal therapy go?” Guy asked, his voice rumbling through his chest and into Kyle’s side.

“Pretty well.” Kyle answered. “It lasted exactly as long as they said it would, and we’re happy with the results.”

Carol had extracted a promise from him to go with her to Zamaron and keep watch while she was stuck in the crystal, because she absolutely didn’t trust the Zamarons. Kyle had been honored by her trust, though he was aware that part of it was Carol knowing that he was too scared of her to betray her.

Thankfully, the process itself had only lasted the two weeks predicted by an in depth scan by Kyle’s ring. Carol had been able to get the time off relatively quickly; only two weeks after their discussion. Kyle had spent most of those first two weeks getting to know Guy, and most of the two weeks on Zamaron exploring and looking forward to today.

“Any trouble with the… therapists?” Guy asked. It took Kyle a moment to figure out what ‘therapists’ was code for. They tried to avoid talking explicitly about aliens where people could overhear.

“I didn’t really see much of them.” Kyle admitted. The Zamarons had been reclusive, and not particularly chatty. “I did meet a few other patients though.”

There had only been a few Star Sapphires on Zamaron while Carol and Kyle were there, but Kyle pursued befriending them with the determination of an anime protagonist. And was quite successful, if he did say so himself.

Guy smiled. “You’ll have to tell me about them.”

“Gardner for two?” Called the maitre’d.

“That’s us.” Guy said, and they walked to their table hand in hand.

Kyle wondered if he could convince Guy to help him recharge tonight. Sure, this was technically just their first date, and being near Guy right now was making Violet Light Energy surge from Kyle’s fingertips to his toes, but he thought Guy would let Kyle convince him.


End file.
